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Prices for oil will start to go down in the next coming months. The Suadis are pissed. Prices have risen partically in anticipation of more competition. Why do you think perhaps Bush & Team were in Georgia just recently...and this is why Putin was also thrown into this trip ( SECURITY) .. Chechnya need to be brought under control...
Giant Caspian oil pipeline opens
LONDON (BBC News) Oil is set to flow from the Caspian Sea direct to the Mediterranean for the first time after a $3.6b (£2b) pipeline opened on Wednesday.
Starting in Azerbaijan, the 1,600km (1,000 mile) pipeline will pass through Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
The project has taken more than 10 years to finish and will unlock one of the world's biggest energy reserves.
It has not been without controversy, however, and there have been protests about the impact on the environment.
Some demonstrators were beaten and arrested last Saturday, with Azeri authorities saying that they acted because the protest was too close to the pipeline.
High profile
Wednesday's ingeneration at the Sangachal oil terminal near Baku was attended by presidents from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey.
U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman also was present at a ceremony where the taps were turned on.
The pipeline has been an international effort and was built by a consortium led by UK oil giant BP, which has a 30% stake.
Other consortium members include Azerbaijan's state oil company Socar, Amerada Hess, ConocoPhillips, Eni, Inpex, Itochu, Statoil, Total, TPAO and Unocal.
David Woodward, the head of BP's operations in Azerbaijan, said that the opening marked the former Soviet republic's "rebirth as an important country for the oil industry, just as it was more than a century ago".
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev said that "this pipeline first of all will help solve economic and social problems" but also will play a role in "strengthening peace and security in the region". -------Wider implications
The BBC's Emma Simpson said from Baku that for energy-hungry countries such as the U.S. the pipeline is a strategically important non-Russian, non-Middle Eastern source of oil.
The Caspian area produces high-quality light crude, but has suffered in the past because of the difficulty of getting its oil to consumers in Europe, the U.S., China and Japan.
Until now, states in the region sent almost all of their oil via Russian pipelines.
The Caspian project is not without risk, however, as the pipeline runs through the volatile Caucasus and will require constant surveillance to prevent it from attack, our correspondent said.
Work on the pipeline was given fresh impetus in the late 1990s after BP made new oil discoveries in Azerbaijan and crude prices began to recover from historic lows.
Up to a million barrels a day will eventually be heading directly west, gushing underneath miles of rugged terrain.
However, it will take several months merely to fill the pipeline, which has a capacity of 10 million barrels.
The oil in the pipeline will initially come entirely from Azerbaijani fields, but Kazakhstan is expected to participate in the project before the end of the decade.
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Pump away baby cuz boating season is in full swing!
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actually you have to admire how they handle their enviro-nazi's...... :crossx:
why can't we beat and arrest ours again?? :confused:
Some demonstrators were beaten and arrested last Saturday, with Azeri authorities saying that they acted because the protest was too close to the pipeline.
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yeah... like some local legislators we keep hearing from.... :hammerhea
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I'd like to beat some local legislators....... :hammerhea
oooppss sorry did I say that out loud?
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All the oil in the pipeline means nothing if we can't refine it. Our refineries have been running at near maximum capacity. We import refined gasoline already.
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Is it hyperbole that the US refining capacity is limited by greed, that when the price of crude is lower the refiners shut down major refineries, limiting capacity and falsly inflating short term prices resulting in hundreds of Millions in additional revenue? I've heard that conspiracy theory over and over again, probably beginning in the 70s during the energy crisis that put gasoline over the $.60 a gallon mark...whew was that expensive...
I remember we had a gas pump here at work back in the day. It was set up to do cents and thenths of cents per gallon, not dollars. Most of the pumps at gas stations had to have a cut out to accept the dollar digit...Man I'm old...
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Is it hyperbole that the US refining capacity is limited by greed, that when the price of crude is lower the refiners shut down major refineries, limiting capacity and falsly inflating short term prices resulting in hundreds of Millions in additional revenue? I've heard that conspiracy theory over and over again, probably beginning in the 70s during the energy crisis that put gasoline over the $.60 a gallon mark...whew was that expensive...
I remember we had a gas pump here at work back in the day. It was set up to do cents and thenths of cents per gallon, not dollars. Most of the pumps at gas stations had to have a cut out to accept the dollar digit...Man I'm old...
I don't know that it's hyperbole.
Refineries come off line regularly, for many different reasons. Why would supply and demand be any different. I know that it would be difficult to open a new refinery in this environmental climate. No different from the operating pump numbers that go up and down with demand.
For anyone that doesn't think energy prices are manipulated on small and massive scales, I think it has recently been proven that even a bunch of aholes in trading offices successfully manipulated energy pricing on a nation wide scale...
Any one who thinks that an industry as large as oil is not manipulated is naive.
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Facts are that we have closed something like 200 hundred smaller refinery operations. Primarily because they did not meet environmental and other standards These plants were bought by 3rd world countries and diassembled and then reassembled in their country. In addition, no new refineries have been built within the same time period.
Another interesting fact is that crude oil, as the "material" used to produce refined products, is only 33% of the total cost of the final product. what does that mean kids? That means as the price of crude goes up and down, it DOES NOT have a direct coorelation to price issues. If crude doubles, then 33% of the cost doubles. Not the whole number.
Let's not forget that Uncle Sam and KALIFORNIA take their share as well. I think it adds up to 70 cents? Is that right? Someone knows.
But it's fun to blame the mean oil companies that are there to screw everyone. Forget that they are in foreign countries spending billions of investment dollars so we can get 2 mpg on the lake!! (God Bless Them!)
Where the heck is that fun thread about the unions again? Damn this is a fun day!!
Someone want to talk about Kachinas or Cheetahs or something? :rollside:
:yuk: :yuk:
